The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

July 10, 2009

UPDATE: Matter's defense attorneys get delay in Urquhart murder trial

By Monica Pryts

HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP — Michael Vance Matter’s trial for allegedly murdering Howard Stanley Urquhart of Hempfield Township in 2008 has been continued to October.

At a pre-trial conference Thursday, Matter’s public defenders Dana Flick and Veronica Smith asked for trial to be moved from next week to mid-October because they need more time to prepare their case, Mercer County District Attorney Robert G. Kochems said.

Flick and Ms. Smith wouldn’t comment further on the case.

Kochems said the jurors were set to be selected next week and he had expected the trial to last at least a week. It was pushed to October because of scheduling conflicts, he said.

Kochems in February said he was considering asking the court to pick the jury from another county and change the trial’s location because of the case’s local media coverage.

He said Thursday he’s no longer seeking those changes and neither are Matter’s attorneys. He believes the trial will run smoothly in Mercer County, Kochems said.

Urquhart’s family members, some of whom testified at Matter’s Feb. 19 hearing, said they didn’t want to comment until after the trial is over.

Matter, 53, formerly of 40 Maple Road, West Salem Township, is accused of shooting Urquhart, 60, of 347 Hadley Road, on Jan. 15, 2008, off of Bandy Road, Greene Township.

Matter had been charged with homicide and in January, he and the district attorney’s office reached a plea agreement where that charge was dropped in exchange for involuntary manslaughter.

Matter was set to be sentenced Feb. 19 but changed his mind, saying he wanted to prove to a jury that his friend Urquhart’s death was a hunting accident, not a homicide, despite his attorneys’ advice to stick with the plea deal.

The original charges were reinstated: first- and third-degree murder, robbery, theft, forgery, access device fraud, a gun possession violation, possessing instruments of crime and abuse of a corpse.

Urquhart’s body was found Feb. 20, 2008, after Matter told his attorney where authorities could find it. Matter has said he and Urquhart had been poaching deer in the woods that night and the two men were following a deer Urquhart shot with a crossbow.

Matter said he mistook Urquhart for the deer in the dark and accidentally shot him in the neck. He said he panicked and took off in Urquhart’s truck. He was eventually arrested in North Carolina and is also accused of using Urquhart’s credit card and checkbook.

If Matter is convicted of murder, he will serve a mandatory life sentence in prison. There is no bail for murder cases in Pennsylvania and Matter is being held in Mercer County Jail.

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